Splitting machine



Feb. 25, 19 41. T SEELY/ 2,232,808

SPLITTING MACHINE Filed July 6, 1 s Sheets-Sheet 1 Feb. 25, 1941. 'r. H. SEELY SPLITTING MACHINE s Sheets-Sheet} Filed July 6, 1938 lvvi/v 717/1 gp-Zk,

Feb. 25, 1941.

T. H. SEELY SPLITTING MACHINE Filed July 6, 1938 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented Feb. 25, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SPLITTIN G MACHINE- Jersey Application July 6, 1938, Serial N 0. 217,808

9 Claims.

This invention relates to splitting machines and is herein illustrated as embodied in a machine for splitting the heel end of a sole to reduce said end to a predetermined uniform thick- 6 ness, and at the same time to form a flap or tab on the flesh side of the sole.

In the manufacture of shoe in which a wood heel has a channel in its breast to receive the rear end of a short sole, said rear endshould be of such a thickness that it will fit snugly in the channel; and it is desirable that there should be a flap or tab on the sole which projects beyond the rear edge of the sole in position to lie upon and be fastened to the attaching face of the heel.

The sole-receiving channels in wood heels are of a predetermined uniform width; and the present invention provides a machine for reducing end portions of leather .pieces such as the heel portions of long soles to a predetermined I thickness irrespective of the original thicknesses of the leather pieces, and at the same time forming tabs on their flesh faces. Soles, thus operated upon, having been subsequently shortened, may be attached to the bottoms of lasted shoes, after which wood heels of the type described above may be fitted to the rear ends of the soles in the manner described above and nailed in place. The illustrated machine comprises a work support upon which a sole is placed grain side down and a knife carriage which reciprocates over the support to out a tab on the heel portion of the sole, the table being maintained at a predetermined distance from the edge of the knife during the cutting stroke such that a portion of each sole beneath the tab is reduced to a thickness substantially equal to the width of the groove in the wood heel. which is Y to receive the end of the subsequently shortened sole.

This and other features of the invention, including certain details of construction and combinations of parts, will be described as embodied in an illustrated machine and pointed out in the appended claims.

.Referring now to the accompanying drawings,

Fig, 1 is a perspective of a machine in which the present invention is embodied;

Fig. 2 is a perspective of a portion of a wood heel having a channel in its breast face;

Fig. 3 is a section of-a portion of a heel and a portion of a sole showing the positions they occupy in the finished shoe;

Fig. 4 is a perspective of substantially the same parts as are shown in Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a perspective of a portion of a sole after it has been operated upon by the machine;

Fig. 6 is a View principally in longitudinal median section of a portion of the machine;

Fig. 7' is a section on an enlarged scale, taken at right angles to the shaft 51, showing the position of parts at the moment when the knife is about to enter the sole;

Fig. 8' is a section, also on an enlarged scale, of the parts shown in Fig, 7 but viewed at right angles to said figure, the shaft 51 being shown in elevation; and

Fig. 9 is a plan of the machine.

The purpose of the machine, as has been explained, is to form on the flesh side of a sole a tab-or flap and at the same time to reduce the 15 heel end of the sole, irrespective of its original thickness, to a predetermined thicknessequal or substantially so to the width of a channel in the breast of a wood heel of the type known as breastlock. Referring to Figs. 2, 3 and 4, such so a heel is adapted for interengagement with the rear end of a short sole, which has been attached to a shoe, and has at the upper portion of its breast a lip IUD adapted to lie for its whole length upon the rear portion of the sole 30B. 25 Below the lip I00 is a ledge so shaped and spaced from the lip as to form with the under curved face of the lip a curved channel 200 of a width to receive and be snugly filled by the rear end of the sole, said channel extending transversely of the heel immediately below the lip and having upturned ends which terminate in the attaching face of the heel adjacent to the breast corners thereof, a heel of this kind being disclosed in United States Letters Patent No. 2,121,172, 35 granted June 21, 1938 on an application filed in the name of Fred C. Lovejoy. The lip I00 may lie between the upper face of the sole and the bottom of the shoe or it may lie between the upper face of the shortened end of the sole and 40 the under face of a tab or flap 4130, as herein shown and as disclosed in application Serial No. 117,726, filed December 28, 1936, in the names of Anthony Vigorith, Ernst J. Story and John M. Delaney. In the latter case the tab or flap 5% is 45 first formed upon the sole as indicated in Fig. 5, after which the sole is shortened at itsrear end, for example by severing it along the section indicated by the dotted line 500; and the size of the tab 400 may also be decreased subsequently til)v if desired by cutting off part of it. In the finished shoe, as shown in Fig. 3, the rear end of the shortened sole fits snugly in the channel 200; thellp loll extends into the split between the sole and the tab, and the tab is long enough The illustrated machine is similar in many respects to the machine disclosed in United States Letters Patent No. 1,224,918, granted May 8, 1917,

upon an application filed inthe name of Frederick M. Furber, and before describing what is new a brief description of what is old will be given. The machine has a flat inclined bed Upon ways l3 formed in the frame of the machine a carriage I5 is slidably mounted, said carriage hav ing fast thereto a knife I1. The carriage is reciprocated over the bed by means of a connecting rod |9 (Fig. 6), of somewhat different shape from that of the patented machine, pivoted near its left-hand end to the carriage about a stud 2| and at its right-hand end (Fig. 1) about a hollow stud clamped bya pin 23 and a nut 25 to a rotatable plate 26, the head of said pin being received in an undercut groove in said plate. The plate 26 is rotated about an inclined axis, which is perpendicular to the plane of the bed- H, from a horizontal shaft 29 through gearing, not shown, being given one complete revolution whenever a treadlanot shown, is manipulated, and comes to rest in the position shown. The carriage is thus caused to make a complete reciprocation over the bed. The bed has at each side twodownwardly projecting flanges, one of which is shown at I, having cut in them inclined slots 3| through which project horizontal rolls 33 carried by a support 34 which is beneath the bed so that, when the bed is moved to the left, it will ride up on the rolls 33 and thus be raised; and when it is moved back to the right, it will be lowered The bed is 3 held, when at rest, in the lowered position shown by a coiled compression spring 35 (Fig. 6) which encircles a rod 31. This rod, which i fast at one end to the frame of the machine, passes through a perforated block 39 fastened to the under side of the bed by a cap screw and has a stop nut 4| near its outer end. In order to raise the bed after a sole has been placed upon it and to hold it raised during the cutting operation, said bed carries at its right-hand end a roll 43 with which a generally segmental actuating cam 45 is adapted to contact when the carriage I5 is moved to the left. The forward end of this cam (Fig. 9) is beveled so as readily to engage the roll 43, the outline of the effective edge of the cam being a segment of a circle struck from the axis of rotation of the plate 26. At its right-hand end the actuating cam is slotted as indicated at 41 and is held in adjusted position by the pin 23 and nut 25 which hold the hollow stud about which the righthand end of the connecting rod is pivoted. When therefore a sole is placed upon the bed and the plate 26 is caused to make one revolution, the cam 45, by engaging the roll 43, moves the bed to the left thereby raising it and holding it raised until the knife has completed its out. As soon as the out has been completed and just as the knife begins its movement to the right, the roll 43 runs off from the end of the segmental cam 45, where-, upon the spring 35 moves the bed to the right thereby lowering it into the position shown. The mechanism as thus far described is or may be substantially the same as the corresponding mechanism of the machine of the patent to which reference is made for details of construction not herein described.

In the patented machine the support 34 for the bed 'I is mounted on springs so that the bed may yield away from the knife during the cutting stroke; but in the present machine the support 34 ;is rigid, being fastened by screws 49 and spacers 5| (Fig. 6) to the base of the frame 53 of the machine. In the illustrated machine, as will 'presently appear, the work is not placed directly upon the bed I I, but upon a work support in the form of a plate I01 which is carried by the bed.

When a sole is placed on the work support with its heel end toward the knife and the machine is operated, the work support is raised into a predetermined unyielding position at a distance below'the edge of theknife equal to the desired thickness to which the rear portion of the sole is to be reduced and is held in that position during the cutting stroke so that the rear portions of all soles in a locality beneath the tab are all reduced to the same thickness.

In order to hold a sole on the support during the cutting of the tab and to provide for soles of different thicknesses, a toothed presser roll is provided. This presser roll (Fig. 8) consists of alternate toothed disks 55 and spacers 56 keyed to a sleeve 58 and clamped in place on the sleeve by a nut60 and a washer 62 against a shoulder formed in the sleeve. The left-hand end of the sleeve has a recess with flat Walls. The shaft 51 is slabbed ofi at opposite sides so that it will enter this recess and thereby drive the sleeve, the righthand end of the shaft being of reduced diameter to pass through the bore in the sleeve. The difference in the thicknesses of soles is not great, and this difference is taken care of by making the teeth comparatively long so that they may enter farther into a thick sole than into a thin one. The shaft 51 is rotatably mounted in a yoke 59 (Fig. 1) the arms of which are pivoted about trunnions 6| carried by the carriage 5. A cotter pin 64 holds the shaft from longitudinal movement. A tension spring 63, fast at one end to a pin 65 driveninto the yoke and at the other end to a pin 61 driven into the carriage, tends at all times to swing the yoke up about its trunnions 6| and holds a cam-bar 69, which is adjustably fastened to the yoke by screws 7|, against a roll 73 carried at the end of an extension of the connecting rod |9 which projects to the left beyond the stud 2| about which the connecting rod is pivoted to the carriage IS. The cam-bar 69 has two cam surfaces (Fig. 9) 15 and 11. The cam surface 15 has a contour such that, as long as the roll 13 is in a contact with it, the yoke 59 remains in the angular position shown with the presser roll 55 in position to hold the sole upon its support just in front of the knife. The cam surface 11 has a contour such that, while the roll 13 is in contact with it, the yoke 59 occupies a position in which the presser roll is raised somewhat. At each cycle'of revolution of the machine, as has been explained, the right-hand end of the connecting rod I9 makes a complete revolution in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 9. During the first half of the revolution, that is while the knife and presser roll are moving to the left on the cutting stroke, the roll 13 remains in contact with the cam surface 15; and just as the last half of the revolution begins, the roll 13 runs on the cam surface 11 and the yoke 59 is swung clockwise (Fig. 6).by the spring 63 to raise the roll so as to relieve the pressure of the roll on the sole during the return stroke of the carriage. The screws 'II pass through slots which extend widthwise through the bar 69 and are threaded into the yoke 59, the bar being thus adjustable widthwise forward and back of the machine to vary the initial position of the presser roll 55 above the level of the work support. To facilitate such adjustment and to ensure that the bar 69 shall be held firmly in adjusted position, two screw bolts "I9, held in adjusted position by lock nuts, are threaded through lugs formed on the yoke and abut with their ends the bar 69.

The presser roll 55 is rotated first in one direction and then in the other during a complete reciprocation of the carriage I5 by means of a rack bar 8| and gearing which connects the rack bar with the roll, said rack bar being pivoted at one end about the stem of a screw 82 carried by a bracket 84 which is fast to the frame of the machine and having teeth formed on its under side.

The rack bar extends between a flanged guide roll 83, Which runs on the flat top of the bar, and a gear 85 which engages the rack teeth. The gear 85 is fast to one end of a short shaft 86 (Fig. 9) to the other end of which is fast a gear 81. This gear 81 meshes with a gear 88 on a stud 99 which in turn meshes with a gear 89 on a stud 92, said last-named gear meshing with a gear 9| on the presser roll shaft 51. The roll 83 and the gears 85, 81, 88 and 89 are all carried by a bracket which is fast to the reciprocating carriage I5, the gear 9i on the presser roll shaft being carried by the yoke 59. With this construction, when the carriage I5 moves to the left during the cutting stroke of the knife, the presser roll is rotated counterclockwise (Fig. 6), and the direction of rotation is reversed when the carriage moves to the right on its return stroke. The gearing described above is so constructed that the peripheral speed of the presser roll 55 is the same as the speed of the reciprocating carriage, so that the sole is held stationary upon its support while it is being cut.

Extending between the toothed disks of the presser roll are alternate presser fingers 93 and stripper fingers 95, the function of both sets of fingers being to press the heel end of the sole against the work support I91, and one function of the stripper fingers being to strip the tab from the toothed roll on the return stroke of the carriage. Both sets of fingers are pivoted about a small rod 91 (Fig. 6) carried by a bracket 99 which is vertically adjustable in a guideway formed on the front of the yoke 59 and is held in adjusted Vertical position by a clamping screw I9| which passes through a vertical slot in the bracket and is threaded into the yoke. Tension springs fastened at their lower ends to the tails of the fingers and at their upper ends to outwardly turned upper portions of the bracket 99 normally hold a locality on each of the fingers to the left of the pivot rod 91 in contact with the adjacent lower edge of' the bracket 99; In order to adjust the angular position of the fingers, an adjusting screw I95, threaded into a hole in the yoke 59, has a flange at the lower end of its head which is received in a horizontal slot in the bracket 99. Thus by loosening the clamping screw NH and turning the screw I95, the angular positions of the. fingers may be varied;

Inasmuch as it is desired to form on the heel portion of the soleatab such as that shownin Fig. 5 which is narrower than the heel portion of the sole and does not extend to the extreme heel end, the work support I01 upon which the heel portion of the sole is placed is a plate having a beveled forward end of the contour shown. Referring to Fig. '7, which shows the position of parts just before the moving knife enters the sole, it will be seen that the presser fingers 93 and stripper fingers 95 have bent the heel end of the sole down about the beveled end of the support I91 so that the knife will enter the sole at a distance from its rear end. By the time the cutting of the tab has been completed, the tab may be more or less impaled upon and clinging to the,

presser roll 55 which has ben rotated in a counterclockwise direction during the cutting stroke of the carriage I5. During the return stroke the presser roll rotates clockwise, and the tab, if it clings to the roll, is stripped from the roll by the stripper fingers 95.

The work support I91 is adjustable lengthwise of the bed II to determine the length of the tab which will be out. To this end it is fastened by a screw I99 to a small block II3 which is slidable in a slot I I5 in the bed, said small block I I3 having a transverse rib on its upper side which is received in a transverse slot cut in the under side of the bed. A slender screw-threaded rod, which is mounted in blocks I I9, I2I fastened to the underside of the bed I I and is held from turning and from longitudinal movement by a pin I23, has its right-hand end threaded to receive a thumb nut I25 which projects into a transverse slot in the work support I91. By turning this thumb nut the forward end of the work support may be brought into register with any one of a series of marks of a scale which represents the widths of soles. The rear parts of soles are located on the support I91 and their foreparts on a plate I3I by placing their toe ends against a gage I 2'! which is the upright arm of an angle iron, the horizontal arm of which is fastened by a screw I29 to the plate I3I the upper surface of which is at the samelevel as that of the support I97. The plate I3I has fastened to its underside a small block I33 which, like the small block H3, is slidable in the slot II 5. A thumb nut I 35 threaded upon the left-hand end of the rod II! and extending up into a transverse slot in the plate I 3I provides means for adjusting the plate I 3| which has along one edge a scale of size marks.

If soles of the same width and size all had the same length, it would merely be necessary to set the forward end of the support I9! on the proper width mark and to set the proper size mark of the plate I3! in register with a stationary indexing mark on the bed II; but inasmuch as soles of the same size and width may have different lengths if they are of different styles, provision is, made for this contingency. In the present construction there is mounted on a small threaded rod in a slot in the bed II at one side of the plate I3I a thumb nut I31 having upon its periphery an indexing mark I39; and alongside this nut on the bed I I is an arbitrary scale shown as running from 1 to 5. The procedure is as follows: Supposing, for example, that soles of a certain style'are to be operated upon. A sole is selected preferably of medium size and width, for example size 6 and width D. The support I9! is adjusted into a position in which its forward endis on the mark D; and the plate IN isthen adjusted into a position in whichg'when this sole is placed with its toe against the gage I21 and the knife carriage I5 is reciprocated, a tab of A the desired length will be formed on the sole. The thumb nut I3! is then turned until its indexing mark I39 is in register with the numeral 6 of the sizescale. When this has been done, all soles of that style of whatever length may be properly located as to length by causing the size number of a sole of any given size to register with the mark I39. The operator notes for future reference the number on the arbitrary scale mark on the bed I l which registers with the indexing mark I39; and thereafter whenever soles of this particular style are to be operated upon, the thumb nut I31 with its indexing mark may be adjusted at once into the proper position.

In the operation of the machine the rear part of the sole is placed grain side down upon the flat face of the work support I01 and the plate l3| with its toe end against the gage I21; and the carriage I5 is caused to make one complete reciprocation. As it starts forward the cam 45 engages the roll 43, pushes the roll to the left thereby raising the bed H and holding it, during the remainder of the forward stroke, in raised position in which the distance between the plane of the upper surface of the work support I01 and the plane of the cut of the knife is equal to the width of the groove in the breast of the heel into which the heel end of the subsequently shortened sole is to be placed. As the knife, presser roll and fingers reach the positions shown in Fig. 7, the teeth of the presser roll enter the flesh side of the sole and hold the work firmly in place; and the fingers 93, bend the margin of the sole in the manner indicated in Figs. 7 and 8. As the carriage l5 continues its forward stroke, the knife enters the sole at a point spaced from the heel end and forms a tab such as that shown in Fig. 5. Just as the carriage begins its back stroke, the cam 45 runs off from the roll 43 and the bed I! is moved to the right by the spring 35 and thereby lowered; and during the first part of the back stroke, when the direction of rotation of the presser roll 55 has been reversed, the stripper fingers 95 strip the tab from the teeth of the presser roll if the tab clings to the teeth.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

l. A machine for preparing a sole for use with a heel having in its breast a channel of predetermined width by forming an imperforate tab on the flesh side of the heel end of the sole and simultaneously reducing the portion beneath the tab to a uniform thickness equal to the width of the channel, said machine having in combination a smooth fiat unyielding support for the grain side of the sole, a straight knife, means for causing the knife to enter the sole and to form the imperforate tab, means for maintaining the support and the knife during the cutting operation parallel to each other and at a distance apart equal to the width of the channel, and means for maintaining the sole in different positions with respect to the path of travel of the knife to Vary the length of the tab.

2. A machine for preparing a sole for use with a heel having in its breast a channel of predetermined width by forming an imperforate tab on the flesh side of the heel end of the sole and simultaneously reducing the portion beneath the tab to a uniform thickness equal to the width of the channel, said machine having in combination a smooth flat, unyielding support for engaging the grain side of the sole, a straight knife for cutting the sole to form the imperforate tab, means for maintaining the knife and the support during the cutting operation parallel to each other and at a distance apart equal to the width of the channel, an unyielding roll located in front of the knife, means for causing relative movement of reciprocation between the support and the knife and presser roll, and means for maintaining the sole in different positions with respect to the path of travel of the knife to vary the length of the tab.

3. A machine for forming a tab on the flesh side of the heel end of a. sole and for simultaneously reducing the portion beneath the tab to a predetermined thickness having, in combination, a support for the work, a carriage located above the support, a knife and a presser roll mounted on said carriage, means for causing relative movement of reciprocation of said support and carriage to cause the knife to cut a tab on the work, means for maintaining the support during the cutting operation at a fixed distance below the knife, and means for rotating the presser roll at a peripheral speed equal to that of the reciprocation, said presser roll having teeth which enter the work more or less according as the work is thick or thin and thus provide for pieces of work of different thicknesses.

4. A machine for forming a tab on the fiesh side of the heel end of a sole and for simultaneously reducing the portion beneath the tab to a predetermined uniform thickness having, in combination, a fiat support for the work, a carriage, a straight knife mounted on the carriage, a yoke pivoted to the carriage, a presser roll mounted on the yoke and cooperating with the knife, said roll being cylindrical throughout its length and having its elements parallel to the support. said yoke being angularly adjustable to vary the position of the roll with respect to the knife, and means for causing relative reciprocation of the support and the carriage while maintaining the support and the knife parallel to each other in such manner that the knife remains in the sole during its entire cutting stroke.

5. A machine for forming a tab on the flesh side of the heel end of a sole and for simultaneously reducing the portion beneath the tap to a predetermined uniform thickness having, in combination, a support upon which the grain side of the sole rests, a carriage located above the support, a knife and a presser roll mounted on said carriage, means for reciprocating the carriage over the support, means including a rack mounted on the frame of the machine and gearing mounted on the carriage for rotating the presser roll, and means for maintaining the knife and the support during the cutting operation parallel to each other and at a distance apart equal to the desired thickness of the tab.

6. A machine for forming a tab on the flesh side of the heel and of a sole and for simultaneously reducing the portion beneath the tab to a predetermined uniform thickness having, in combination, a support upon which the grain side of the sole rests, a carriage located above the support, a knife and a presser roll mounted on said carriage, means for reciprocating the carriage over the support, means including a rack mounted on the frame of the machine and gearing mounted on the carriage for rotating the presser roll at a peripheral speed equal to the speed of reciprocation of the carriage, and means for maintaining the knife and the support during the cutting operation parallel to each other and at a distance apart equal to the desired thickness of the tab.

'7. A machine for forming a tab on the flesh side of the heel end of a sole and for simultaneously reducing the portion beneath the tab to a predetermined thickness having, in combination, a support for the work, a carriage located above the support, a knife and a presser roll having spaced rows of teeth mounted on-said carriage, means for causing relative reciprocation of said support and carriage, means for rotating said roll, and presser fingers extending between rows of teeth of the roll.

8. A machine for forming a tab on the flesh side of the heel end of a. sole and for simultaneously reducing the portion beneath the tab to a predetermined thickness having, in combination, a support for the work, a carriage located above the support, a knife and a presser roll having spaced rows of teeth mounted on said carriage, means for causing relative reciprocation of said support and carriage first to cause the knife to enter the work and then to be withdrawn therefrom, means for rotating the presser roll in one direction while the knife is entering the work and in the opposite direction while the knife is being withdrawn, and stripper fingers extending between the rows of teeth of the roll.

9. A machine for operating upon a sole having, in combination, a support for the sole, a carriage located above the support, a knife and a presser mounted on the carriage, means for causing relative reciprocation of the support and the carriage to cut a tab on the heel end of the sole, a toe gage for locating the sole to determine the length of the tab, means for adjusting the toe gage toward the support, and means for adjusting the support toward the toe gage.

THOMAS H. SEELY. 

